An Enemy of the State in Maoist China
Nien Cheng was imprisoned in solitary confinement for six and a half years
"We are the Red Guards. We have come to take revolutionary action against you."
Nien Cheng recounts her experience of the Maoist revolution, in which she was arrested without charge and imprisoned for being an enemy of the state.
"As time went on I realised they knew I was innocent... They were told to find me guilty, to pressure me by any means so that I would provide them with a false confession.
"In six and a half years of solitary confinement, I didn't hear a friendly voice. I never saw a smiling face..."
"I saw this spider. It was a living thing and I watched it make a web. It made me think how could this tiny little spider no bigger than a pea, make such a perfect web. How? Did he learn it? I don't believe it. I think he had this instinct, instilled in him by God. He was born with the ability to make a web. This is something so beyond peoples' understanding that I felt somebody is in control. God is in control. We are not in control, so why should I be afraid of these people?"
